Every spring, I am amazed at how much growth my students make. Year after year, it's the same. It's like they've been little sponges all year soaking in the knowledge until they're full. At this point every year, they begin pouring out their knowledge and growing leaps and bounds. I look forward to sharing this growth with you at conferences next week. You should be very proud of your child. Read the updates below to find out what we've been learning and working on in the different subject areas.

MathProblem solving has been a big focus of ours in math. We have read our problems in a different way. Instead of reading problems with numbers, the word "some" is thrown into the problem. This strategy is called "Notice and Wonder". Without the numbers, students are really able to focus on what is going on in the problem. After students discuss what they notice and wonder about the problem, I fill in numbers. It's been amazing to see how many students now understand when they add or subtract. Instead of just automatically adding the numbers together, students have THOUGHT about the problem and understand which operation makes sense. I know this is pretty difficult to envision, so I have included a video so you can get an idea of how this works. I honestly had to see it for myself before implementing on my own, so I had my friend Mrs. Smith (another kindergarten teacher) show us. This was their first time working with a problem without numbers, and their discomfort shows. Since this video was recorded, they have grown more and more comfortable with this approach. I have seen so much growth since applying this strategy! Below are some pictures and a video of this approach.

In addition to problem solving, my students have worked a lot with fluency. Not only is fluency important in reading; it is also important in math. By the end of the year, students are expected to be able to add and subtract fluently within 5. With the use of games, math sprints, and number bonds, the majority of my students are already fluent within 5. More than any other year, I have been blown away at my students' ability to add and subtract quickly! Here is a video of one of our math sprints. Students are given only 96 seconds to complete the addition and subtraction problems. There are 20 problems on each page, so it requires students to answer the problems very quickly in order to finish. If they miss zero or one problem, they get to move on to the next sheet, which is a little more complex than the sheet before. We will keep working on fact fluency the rest of the year.

WritingIn writing, my students are currently publishing their final opinion writing pieces. They have learned how to share their opinion in three ways: through posters, letters, and books. They are currently working on books and will share a published opinion book with you at conferences.

We have worked a lot on revising and editing. Students have learned that revising means to add, take out, or change words so they SOUND better. My students have gotten pretty good at rereading their writing to see if it makes sense. Now, they have been adding words to make it sound even better or to be even more convincing. They have used checklists to help them do this. They have also been able to share every day with their writing partner. Their partner helps to go through the checklist to see if the writer needs to add or change anything. I've included a video of my students sharing with their partners. I was so impressed with the things they encouraged their partner to revise.

My students have also learned that editing means to change their writing to make it LOOK better, or easier to read. They can do this by focusing on making sure their writing includes spaces between words, punctuation at the end of their sentences, correctly spelled sight words, and capital letters in the correct places. To help with the editing process, my students have been given an editing stick (which is a Popsicle stick with colorful dots on the ends for each of those four editing components).

Below is a picture of our editing sticks. You can easily make one at home to help your child with the editing process. Even though they are just sticks, they really hep my students edit their writing to make their writing easier to read.

ReadingMy students have taken off with their reading! They have come so far with their fluency, accuracy, comprehension, and vocabulary. I would say fluency and accuracy have come the furthest. My students have been practicing sight word phrases in guided reading, which has helped them put words together quickly. They have also learned that punctuation changes and enhances our voice when we're reading. My students understand that when they see quotation marks, they are supposed to make their reading sound like the character talking. I look forward to applying our fluency skills when we begin to practice the class play for graduation. It should be a lot of fun!

A student from Mrs. Hahn's room, Darrian's sister Daileah, has chosen to come read to our class as a reward. It's been so fun to have her come in and model some fluent reading. Below is a video of DaiLeah reading The Foot Book. My students have been inspired by her fluency skills, as she is very animated as she reads. Many have incorporated this into their own reading. It's been fun to see and hear!

As far as accuracy goes, my students have gotten so much better at cross-checking. My students have learned to ask these three questions when they come to a word they're not sure is accurate: Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense? This cross-checking strategy has definitely improved my students' accuracy. If you get a chance, have your child show you the actions we have put to this strategy. It's pretty cute!!

Although this was several weeks ago now, I can't help but share. For one of our PBIS rewards, my students chose to have a flashlight party. The party included doing our readers' and writers' workshop in the dark with only our flashlights. Being realistic, I didn't think it would be a very productive day of learning. The funny thing is, they were even MORE ENGAGED than usual. I've included a few videos from that day. To end our flashlight day, we had a dance party as well. It was truly a fun experience!

Science We have been learning so much about weather. Students have learned about different types of weather (sunny, rainy, cloudy, partly sunny/cloudy, snowy, and windy). They have also learned that weather is constantly changing and that it affects what we do and how we dress. We have had to learn the hard way this winter and some days this spring that when the temperature is below 10 degrees, it's too cold to go outside. We have become "weather watchers' and have begun recording in a weather journal what the weather is like on random days. I look forward to doing some experiments related to weather.

We have also learned about "Claims and Evidence". Once again, Mrs. Smith came in to model how to use this language during science. From this lesson, students learned that scientists make claims about the things and the world around them. In order to make a claim more substantial, people should provide evidence to support their thinking. I've included this lesson in the two videos below. We have continued to use this language during our lessons related to weather.

All in all, it has been so fun to watch my students take off the last month or so. As I said earlier, they have learned so much all year long, but they have just sprinted full speed ahead lately. I look forward to seeing how they do on their spring testing coming up in the next few weeks. I am sure they will continue to blow me away. Thanks for everything you do to support your child at home. It is very clear they have such caring, supportive families.

​With the new trimester, comes new learning. My students are seriously blowing me away with the things they are learning! See the various subjects below to see some of the things we have learned in the past month and what we are working on from now until the end of the year:

MathThis last trimester of math can be summed up in two words: problem solving!! Students are solving many story problems and are learning the difference between addition and subtraction. Students are also learning that addition and subtraction work together. They are beginning to understand if I know 2+3=5, then I also know 5-2=3. They are also learning that the equal sign means 'the same as'. They have learned that number sentences can be written in various ways, such as 6=3+3 and 3+3=6. They have learned a lot of these through number bonds, which you have seen in the homework. They have also been very flexible with their number sentences during our number talks (see picture below).

Students are also learning problem solving strategies. We have made an anchor chart of various things we can do to solve problems. Some of our strategies include: counting on/down, using a hundred's chart, using ten frames, using fingers, using base-10 blocks, drawing a picture, and acting it out. Although all of these strategies can work, we have talked about using more efficient strategies. For example, with larger numbers, drawing a picture is not the most efficient. In addition, students continue to find efficient ways to count large collections of items. Making groups of 10 is one efficient way of counting.

Through problem solving and counting, students are truly developing an understanding of how numbers work together. In essence, they are developing a strong sense of numbers. We are also working to fluently solve addition and subtraction problems within 5. These facts should be automatic by the end of the year. To practice this, students are doing math sprints to gain speed and confidence. Below is a video of one of our math sprints.

​Here are a few things you can do at home to help support what we are learning at school:

have students solve simple story problems (adding and subtracting)review addition and subtraction facts under 5 (2+3=5, 2+1=3, 5-1=4...)count by 1's, 5's, 10's to 100 and count by 2's to 20find the missing number (2+ ____ =5, 3- ____ = 2, 2+____=4, etc.)

ReadingStudents have been learning more accuracy strategies to help them read words correctly. So far, we have learned to:

find the first part and look through the whole wordcross-check ("Does it look right? Does is sound right?")flip the vowel sound (try different vowel sounds to make it correct)get your mouth ready to say the first soundcheck the picture

Students have also learned the importance or retelling a story. They are becoming more familiar with story element vocabulary (characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution). I feel like my students have grown a lot in the area of comprehension since the start of the year. In addition, they have learned to think beyond the text. They make connections to stories as they read. They can relate to the stories and characters. This, to me, is the most important aspect of comprehension. Students are constantly telling me, "This book reminds me of..." They also love making predictions before and throughout reading books.

Another aspect of reading that we have really focused on has been vowel sounds. Students have been learning about short and long vowel sounds. I would say that most of my students are able to read most simple CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant words such as hat, hen, pot, etc.). They have learned that readers have to be flexible with vowels, and that sometimes, you might have to try a different sound if one vowel sound doesn't make sense.

My students have learned fluency strategies such as go back and reread to make your reading sound like talking. They have also learned that being a voracious reader will help with fluency. I have noticed a renewed sense of passion and excitement about reading since we began talking about voracious reading. Students have begun to discover that they can read books off most book shelves and read lots of the words. That's a very exciting time for students.

In the last few weeks, I noticed that the readers' workshop procedures in my room were not quite what they were at the beginning of the year. With a little practice and conversation, students were able to fix this very quickly. I was so proud of them! Since then, we haven't had any issues. Here is a video of their new and improved readers' workshop procedures.

​Writing﻿My students have truly become authors!!! I'm sure many of you will be able to tell after reading through their books from 2nd trimester that they have become such wonderful writers. The personal narratives they wrote at the end of 2nd trimester were phenomenal. I would argue that many of their books were better than many of my first grade students' books in the past. We have focused a lot on these stories having a solid beginning, middle, and end. To help tell our stories, students have learned the importance of using sequence words: first, then, next, last, etc. They have also learned the importance of adding extra details in their stories to help the reader picture exactly what happened. Throughout the month of May (the last month of school), students will once again focus on writing personal narratives.

Before writing personal narratives at the end of the year, students are going to learn about opinion writing and will write their opinions in various ways. Students will learn that people write their opinions to try to solve problems in the world. Students will also learn there are ways in which we share our opinions through different modes of writing: a sign/poster, a book, or a letter. Over the next few weeks, we will focus our attention on writing posters and letters. Students will write persuasive signs and letters with the purpose of convincing others to try to change. Some letters may come home within the next few weeks. These letters will most likely be darling. Most of the problems that have been written in the past are fairly trivial, involving little brothers or sisters or asking for new toys. These are quite simply the problems they see in their world, which is pretty sweet. I love that their biggest problems involve their brother or sister taking their toys! It means they have pretty amazing lives!

They will also learn why sharing opinions is so effective. Ultimately, the goal of sharing opinions with others is to try to convince other people to change their ways or their beliefs. Students will write several opinion pieces through this trimester. Once we have written lots of letters and posters, we will then shift our focus to writing opinion books. One will be shared with you at conferences in April. You might also see some of our signs/posters in the hallway and classroom as well.

With both the opinion and the personal narrative units, we are focusing on writing conventions. We will continue to work on editing our work so that each sentence begins with a capital and ends with a period. We will also work to include capital/lowercase letters in appropriate places. We will also work on spelling sight words correctly.

One of my students' favorite things about writing is publishing a writing piece to share with Mrs. Hahn's class. We have done this at the end of each of our writing units. Here are some pictures and videos from the end of our How-To unit and our Personal Narrative Unit.

​ScienceWe have wrapped up our unit on body parts and their functions and will soon learn all about weather. Students will learn about rain, clouds, temperature, and different kinds of weather. We will do a few experiments involving making a cloud and testing to see if different types of liquids freeze. They will continue to record their findings in their science journals which will come home at the end of the year.

One of the other things we will learn about is weather tools. Students will discover that different tools measure different aspects of weather. One of the tools we will make ourselves will be a rain gauge. We will cut the top off of a bottle and turn that top upside down inside the bottle. Then we will draw lines on the bottle to measure inches. We plan to set the rain gauge outside on a rainy day to measure how much rain comes down. Another aspect we will learn regarding weather is that weather affects how plants grow. Students will learn that most plants grow during the spring because of the warmer temperatures and rainy weather. Students will plant some flower seeds to experiment with this.

Students will also learning from our Flat Stanley project that different types of weather are more prominent in certain areas of the country and world. Students will learn that in some parts of the country, it is warm all year long. In other parts of the country, it is rainy for a lot of the year. We will also learn that some parts of the country (like Iowa) experience all 4 seasons. We are beginning to understand that weather effects the things we wear and the things we do. For example, when it rains for several days in a row, indoor recess is inevitable.

We did another science activity on Wednesday. Students learned more about bones, skin, and finger prints and how useful all of those things are. We learned that bones hold our body up and protect vital organs in our body. We learned that skin helps keep everything in our body together. Students also learned that every fingerprint is different and unique and that detectives often look for fingerprints when trying to solve a mystery. That led us to our activity.

Students were going to be given cookies from a cookie jar when we discovered that someone stole the cookies. Students looked closely at fingerprints to figure out who stole our cookies. They were given magnifying glasses to look carefully at each of the fingerprints. Every group worked extremely well together to discover the culprit. In the end they were given a final clue to find the cookies. They figured out pretty quickly that the cookies were hidden under the couch. Here are a few pictures and videos from the experiment.

​They say that after Christmas, kindergartners make the most growth. After several years of teaching this grade level, I would say that this statement is absolutely true, this year being no exception. Based on assessment results so far, it is evident my students have made tremendous growth since the start of the year. All of you should be so proud! I'm excited to share these results with you at conferences. Here are the items we are working on in the following subject areas:

MathIn the last few months, we have been learning about measurement, comparing numbers, and problem solving. Students have learned how to measure using nonstandard units (cubes, paperclips, etc.) and have learned how to compare objects using weight, length, and height. They have also learned how to compare numbers and make statements such as, '5 is more than 3' and '3 is less than 5'.

​Problem solving continues to be something we work on every week. Students are learning that there are multiple ways to solve problems. We are beginning to decipher the most efficient way to solve each problem.

Listed below are some other skills we are working on in math. Please help by reinforcing these things at home:

one more/one less

10 and some more (i.e. 10+3=13, 10+5=15, 10+7=17)...this concept has been developed through the use of ten-frames

counting by ones from 1 to 100

counting by fives and tens to 100

writing numbers 1 to 100

the concept of addition (adding more) and subtraction (taking away)

addition and subtraction symbols and what they mean (+/-)

the meaning of the equal sign (= means 'the same as')

fluently adding/subtracting facts within 5

One of the things we have focused on lately has been the concept of equality. My students have learned that equals means the same as. They have had some practice determining whether an equality sentence is equal or not. For example, I have shown my students some of the following sentences:

5 = 5 (True)

5 = 5 + 0 (True)

0 + 5 = 5 + 0 (True)

0 + 5 = 2 + 3 (True)

0 + 5 = 3 + 3 (False)

0 + 5 = 5 + 1 (False)

Students have had to determine if the equality sentences are true or false. I think you would be surprised to learn your children have really begun to understand how this works. Many of my students have had success with this. It's never too early to learn some algebraic thinking! Try some of these at home.

​ReadingComprehension is the ultimate goal in reading. In the end, I want students to understand what they read. We have also been working on accuracy (reading words correctly). As books get more difficult, students will encounter trickier words. One way I encourage students to help them figure out unknown words is to think about what word would look right and make sense. This strategy is called cross checking. As your child is reading at home and he/she comes to an unknown word, encourage him/her to think of a word that looks right AND makes sense. This is a skill that will help them for many years to come.

In addition, we are focusing a lot on phonics with a heavy emphasis on short vowel sounds. To help with this concept at home, provide your child with simple CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) and have them read them. These can be real words (fat, can, sub, leg) or made up words (bov, tup, cad). If students are able to decode these simple words, they will be ready to move on to more difficult words.

We are also focusing a lot on retelling stories. To accomplish this, I have taught my students story elements. Students are learning what each of these terms mean: characters, setting, plot, problem, and solution. To reinforce this skill at home, have your child retell various fiction stories while including these elements.

​WritingAs you already know, we have been learning more about non-fiction books. After studying published informational books, we have been writing our own books about how to do something. They have learned that the purpose of writing this type of book is to teach other people how to do something. Students have studied a variety of published How-To books to learn common characteristics found within this type of writing. They have, in turn, attempted to incorporate these characteristics in their own books. Here are some of the characteristics: using the words you and your (not I and my), listing steps in order with numbers, using sequence words to help explain the steps, including detailed pictures and/or diagrams, using comparisons, giving tips and warnings, and incorporating a beginning, a middle, and an end. Students have enjoyed writing this type of book and are excited to share one with you at conferences.

Once we have finished our How-To Unit, we will once again write personal narratives. It will be important that students understand the difference between these two types of writing (one is to teach or to inform, and the other is to tell a true story). Whether writing personal narrative or how-to books, students are making a lot of progress in writing. I'm excited for you to see their writing at conferences.

​ScienceIn science, we continue to learn about body parts and their functions. Ms. Schwery's class has come in for our science lessons, and as always, students have had a lot of fun. Students have had the chance to label various body parts on an outline of a body. We have also learned that each body part is useful and has a certain job to do. To help students learn the importance of each body part, we have performed a few experiments. Their first job was to eat a chocolate Twinkie without using their hands. Their second experiment was to get from one side of the room to the other using rolling carts instead of their feet. Students learned that it's much easier to do these tasks using their hands and their feet. Here are some pictures and videos from the experiments.

My students were truly so excited and happy to be back at school following winter break. It is so fun to see how much they love and care about one another. I hope their bond remains strong over the years and that these students remain friends for life. I hope this year brings new friendships, new memories, and lots of new learning!

Our Elf on the Shelf arrived today! Students were so surprised and excited that The Book Fairy and Santa left us this wonderful gift. Of course, we had to give our elf a name. To do so, we voted on our favorite names and kept tally of our votes (the names were quite interesting this year!). Some of the suggested names were: Snowflake, Frost, Red Head, Sporty, Sparkle, Santa, Jingle, and Snowy. As I'm sure you've already heard, the name Sparkle won, with Sporty being the 2nd choice. I was a little relieved when Santa wasn't chosen! I think that would have been a little confusing for everyone.

​Sparkle will fly to and from the North Pole to report if my students are doing their best work and if they are respecting one another. It will be fun to see where the elf is and what the elf will be doing each morning when we come to school. Check out our pictures of our elf and other Christmas decorations. ​

​With the beginning of the new trimester already underway, we are hard at work learning all sorts of new things. Here is what we are learning about in the following subject areas:

ReadingWe have focused a lot of attention lately on reading/decoding simple CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant words). Some examples of these CVC words are log, big, leg, fun, dad. With the use of the reading strategy finding the first part and looking through the whole word, students have been successful reading most of these words. We have also practiced this strategy with nonsense words (i.e. bov, nig, paz). The reason we work with nonsense words is because many students automatically recognize these simple CVC words without having to work through the word. We want to make sure they know how to decode any unknown word in text, hence the use of the nonsense words. This would be an easy skill to practice at home with real words or nonsense words. Write words down or use the cut up letters I gave you at conferences to make up the words. Have your child decode each word using the strategy find the first part and look through the whole word.

In addition, we have been learning about the importance of comprehending a story. We have just begun practicing retelling fiction stories, focusing on who is in the story (characters), what happened in the story (plot), and where the story took place (setting). We will be learning about problems and solutions in stories in the near future.

We have also started talking about the importance of fluency. Students have learned that good readers make their reading sound like talking. Students understand that reading should be fluent, expressive, and at a good pace. As books come home, have your child practice reading with fluency, expression, and appropriate pace. Fluency is best practiced with books students know really well or with books that are just right or even a bit too easy.

WritingWe just wrapped up our first writing unit on personal narratives. Though we will come back to personal narratives again later this trimester, we will take a break for the next eight weeks to write How-To books. This particular type of informational text will be fun for students to write. They love writing about things that have happened to them as well as things they know a lot about.

In order to be successful with this type of writing, students must first be exposed to many published examples of How-To books. After reading these books, we have developed a list of text features commonly found in this type of informational book. We have since begun to write our own How-To books. These books are centered around something your child knows how to do really well. Begin talking to your child about some possible ideas of things he/she could write about. Here are some examples of things students have done in the past: ​

How to make a snowman.

How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

How to play football.

How to be a good friend.

How to be a good brother/sister.

How to clean your room.

How to take care of your dog/cat.

How to catch a fish.

These are just a few ideas. Your child is free to pick any topic as long as it's something he/she knows how to do really well. To assist with your child's writing, simply talk to them about some ideas and talk through the important steps they should include in their book. Keep in mind that they will write multiple How-To books over the course of the next eight weeks.

One of the ways we celebrated the completion of our first narrative unit was reading with Mrs. Hahn's class. Students had the opportunity to read their writing to various first grade students. They absolutely LOVED this experience. Here are some pictures and videos from our share time.

​On Monday, we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to enter into our new writing unit on How-To informational books. The students loved this experience, as I knew they would. I had someone record the ceremony and wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do. Their excitement for learning is infectious!

MathWe have been learning more about teen numbers and how teen numbers are ten and some more. We have done a lot of problem solving using ten-frames, which has really helped us recognize what a group of 10 looks like. Students have learned that when a 10-frame is filled, they don't need to count every single item in the frame. Instead, they can say 10 and count on from that number. Students are learning that this is a much faster and more efficient way to count.

Students are also learning about the concept of one more and one less. We have referred to these numbers as neighboring numbers. Some skills you can continue to work on at home are:​ *counting to 100 by ones *counting to 100 by tens *counting to 100 by fives *writing numbers to 20

We are going to continue learning about shapes and problem solving this trimester, but we will add measurement to the repertoire. Students will continue to have a lot of fun discovering that our whole world is made up of shapes, and they will learn the importance of measuring.

In addition, we will continue to work on problem solving. Two days a week, we will complete an addition or subtraction story problem with various number choices. They have learned that there are many different ways to solve problems. Some of the strategies they have learned to solve problems have been drawing pictures, acting out the problem, using a 10-frame, using a number line, and counting on from the biggest number. When selecting a strategy, it's important for students to consider which way would be the most efficient. This is something we have just begun to discuss.

Here are some pictures and a video of the start of our measurement unit. The pictures capture a moment when students were asked to work as a table group to put things in order from shortest to tallest. The video captures the task of finding things longer and shorter than a piece of string.

One more thing I want to share with you is that we finally won the attendance trophy! Each week, the trophy is given to the class that had the best attendance the week before. With all of the sickness going around, my class had never earned it...until a few weeks ago. Here are my students with the attendance trophy. Needless to say, they were pretty excited.

My students have already learned so much in the new trimester. I am so excited to see what they learn by the end of it. Please tell your child to keep up the great work! I am so proud of all of my students!

​When I found the evidence in the above picture last year, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The funny thing is, I looked at this candy corn the other day, and there are now several more bites on the candy corn! Clearly, some of my students this year experienced the same temptation. Sometimes it's hard to remember that these students are just 5 and 6 years old because they are learning and performing really difficult tasks. Even though they are writing personal narratives, learning to think like scientists and mathematicians, and learning how to read both fiction and nonfiction texts, they are still small children who wonder if the sparkly candy corn decorating Ms. Benson's room tastes as good as it looks! My favorite part happened last year as well, but it's too good not to share. One of my students saw the bite marks and expressed her surprise, but then proceeded to bite the top off herself (see below picture). I found her a few minutes later trying to glue the top back on with her small glue stick. There truly isn't a dull moment in my room (last year or this year), and I've got to say, I LOVE it!!! I wouldn't trade it for the world.

In addition to the funny stories, I also love seeing my students develop deep, lasting friendships. A colleague of mine came into my room the other day, and she expressed why she loved my class so much. She said they were a family. I hadn't really thought about my class in this way, but she's absolutely right. My students truly love and care about one another. They celebrate each other when successes are made (both big and small). They are very protective of one another, and they occasionally argue like brothers and sisters. It's all very sweet, really. One particular moment was captured in some pictures. Denver, one of the boys in my room, was sitting on the ground during recess. He was sitting there for no longer than a minute when, suddenly, he was surrounded by lots of girls. It was seriously one of the sweetest moments I have ever witnessed. It was pure magic! I captured only a little of this moment in a few pictures, but I don't think they do the moment justice.

Not only have my students grown in their relationships with one another, they have also grown in their knowledge. Read to find out what we are doing in each subject area.

ReadingIn reading, students have learned several strategies to help them comprehend and decode unknown words. For comprehension, students have learned to stop and check for understanding by asking themselves, 'What did I just read?' Students have learned to retell the story at that point. If they are able to retell, students know they understood what they read. If they are not able to retell, students understand that they need to back up and reread. Students have learned that the most important thing they do as a reader if to understand what they are reading.

Decoding strategies have involved finding the first part and looking through the whole word, as well as cross-checking by asking this question: Does it look right, sound right, and make sense? If the answer is yes to each parts of that question, most likely the word is correct. One thing you can do to reinforce these strategies if your child comes to an unknown word is to remind him/her to find the first part (have your child cover up everything except for the first part). Then have them search through the rest of the word to think of a word that looks right and makes sense. Then ask them, "Does that look right, sound right, and make sense?"

In addition to comprehension and accuracy/decoding strategies, students have learned that fluency involves more than just expression. Students learned that reading at an appropriate pace is also important. They understand that pace is really important...that reading too slow or too fast can affect all areas of reading. Students recognize how important it is to read at an appropriate pace.

I am also so proud to say that the final component of Daily 5/Readers' Workshop was added to their repertoire: Read to Someone. Knowing that students have struggled with this task in the past, I was expecting this year to be no different. The task itself isn't too challenging, but rather, reading quietly the WHOLE time is challenging with a partner. This class is doing exceptionally well with this.

One of the other exciting things that happened over the last few weeks in my classroom is something called I-Pick. This stands for Independently picking books. Students have practiced selecting books from my library and have done this for the past few weeks. These are the perfect books for students to practice reading the pictures, and depending on the book, reading the words as well.

​Once students had a few months to really explore my library and learn the different ways my library is organized (by author, genre, topic, and series), my students were able to pick 3 books to add to their browsing boxes to read for the week. I-Pick will be done each Friday by returning books and picking out new books to learn or to enjoy. Students have learned that there are two reasons to pick a book: to enjoy and to learn.​All in all, my students see themselves as readers and love every aspect of it! I am so proud of their passion and love for learning.

WritingMy students have continued to deepen their understanding of how to write personal narratives, or true stories, from our lives. One of the big focuses has been to include a beginning, a middle, and an end. Students understand that the beginning should tell the reader what this book is about (i.e. One day I went to the park.). They learned that the middle tells what happens in the story through a sequence of events (i.e. First, I went down the slide. Then I went on the monkey bars. Last I went on the swings.). Students have also learned that an ending should include how they felt (i.e. It was so much fun. I was so happy!). This understanding of a narrative structure will continue to serve them well for years to come.

Another aspect we have focused on has been adding details to make our writing even more interesting. Instead of just saying, 'One day, I went to the park', students have learned that a few details might be, 'One HOT day, I went to a REALLY FUN park.' They have also learned that if they want to add a word to their pre-existing writing, they can add a caret instead of erasing everything.

In addition, students have learned how important it is to reread writing to see if it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense or it's difficult to read, my students understand that they need to make changes to their writing to make it easier to read by adding/erasing words or rewriting sloppy writing. They have also learned when to use a capital letter (beginning of a sentence, the word 'I', and names), as well as how to add punctuation to the end of their sentences. They have been asked to reread their writing to see if any changes need to be made with capital letters and/or punctuation. This is really my students' first experience with the revising and editing process.

My students have written some amazing personal narratives thus far. In the next few weeks, students will have the chance to choose their best story to revise and edit even more. They will then prepare that piece to eventually share it with a first grade class. I plan to have my students read their writing to the students in Mrs. Hahn's first grade class. This will be a fun way to end our unit and to celebrate all the amazing writing going on in our classroom. I will try to take some videos of students sharing their stories when the celebration occurs.

MathIn math, my students have really grown in their problem solving strategies as well as their understanding of how number sentences work. They have been introduced to new symbols (plus sign +, minus sign - , and equals sign = ). They have learned to count on from the biggest number to be more efficient in their counting strategies (i.e. if they have a group of ten items and three more, they have been taught to say 10, 11, 12, 13). They have also learned a few more games that reinforce the things we are learning regarding numbers. One of the games we have learned is a game called Trash. All you need is a deck of cards (minus all of the face cards). Ask your child how to play, and you can play this at home.

One of the ways students have developed a deeper sense of how numbers work together is through a practice called number talks. To do a number talk, I usually show students a dot card. Students are then given a minute to look at the dots and see how many different ways they see the dots. Students hold up their fingers to show how many ways they saw the dots. Then I call on a few students to come up and show one of the ways they saw the dots, while I record their thinking. Here is a picture of one of our number talk sessions (see below).

This number talk in particular led students to understand how turn-around facts work (i.e. 3+2=5, 2+3=5). They saw how the addends were just turned around. Through doing these number talks, my students will become much more comfortable in recording their thinking by using number sentences.

Numbers aren't the only things we have been working with in math. We have also been learning more about shapes. Students are specifically learning about the characteristics or attributes of each shape. They have learned the difference between a curved and a straight line. They have also learned terms such as vertices (corners), angles, and sides. Flat shapes and 3-dimensional shapes have been highlighted, and students are just beginning to understand how these types of shapes are different.

Many of my students have begun to count collections of objects that have more than 50 objects. Students have learned the importance of making groups of 10. Here is one picture of a students' counting collection and her recording. Notice how she made circles and wrote a 10 in the center of each circle, representing the groups of ten she made with the objects. The 4 sticks at the end represented the number of objects left over on the ten-frame.

ScienceMy students have LOVED science this year. They have learned that scientists ask questions, study the things around them, and think. We continue to learn about forces and motion through the use of experiments. It has been so much fun to discover how we can use pushes and pulls to help solve real-world problems. Take a look at the videos below to see the full process of one of our experiments. The first video is 10 minutes long, so I understand if you don't want to watch it. I will say, however, that it gives you an idea of how the problem is presented to students and how engaged students are in discovering the solution to the problem at hand. Then, students have the chance to try to solve the problem on their own, and in the process, they draw their own conclusions from the results of their experiment.

We also discovered how bumpers and forces are used when bowling to help knock more pins down. Students discovered that if you throw the bowling ball toward the bumpers, and with a lot of force, the ball bounces off the bumpers and knocks more pins down. Here are some videos from the experiment.

Another science experiment was inspired by a book we read called I Fall Down Vicki Cobb. This book introduces the idea of gravity to young kids. Students were invited to discover which object (heavy or light) hits the ground first when dropped at the same time. After testing out various objects, students discovered that all items hit the ground at the same time and that weight doesn't affect the rate at which the object falls. Students also discovered that the only time an object falls at a slower rate is when the air pushes against the object (such as a feather, a sheet of paper, or a Kleenex). Here are some videos from this experiment as well.

​With this trimester soon coming to a close, I am so excited about all of the things my students are learning. They have made so much growth! As the year continues, I am sure of one thing: I am very lucky and blessed to be these students' teacher. They are an amazing bunch of kids!

The above picture is of my students reading. During one of our play times this week, Amelie came to me and asked if she could read books during play time. After my initial shock wore off, I said, "Yes, you can always choose to read during play time!" Her response was so amazing to witness because she actually cheered. She wasn't the only one either. Several other girls began to cheer as well, and they read during the entire playtime. It was truly the moment that I realized my students view learning as FUN, which is how it should be!

My students' love for learning is truly infectious, and it was evident, not just in reading, but in everything we learned this week. A lot of new concepts were introduced in the last few days. Here are the new things we learned.

ReadingIn reading, students finally learned the last component of Readers' Workshop: Read to Someone. Boy did they love it! They had so much fun reading with various friends this week. We also began to learn more about comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary. We learned about main idea, making reading sound like talking, and tuning in to interesting words. We continued to work in our reading groups, getting time to practice various word-decoding strategies. Here are some pictures and a video of my students doing Read to Someone. Some of the pictures are of the procedures for this component.

MathSimilar to Read to Someone, in math, we learned Math With Someone. This is simply a time where students have the opportunity to play math games with one another. A new favorite game is called Trash. If you have a deck of cards at home, then you can play with your child. Take out all of the face cards (kings, queens, and jacks) from the deck and have your child teach you how to play. I have included a video below of students playing this game.

Students have discovered there are many ways to make numbers. Most recently, we have worked on ways to make 10. Students also discovered the pattern that involves all of the ways to make 10 (see picture below). They also represented these number sentences with Rekenreks, a math tool. Ask your child to explain the pictures of the Rekenreks and of the number pattern displayed on the white board.

We have also continued to learn efficient counting strategies. One of the main strategies we have learned is called counting on from a bigger number. If we know the amount of objects in a group, we can say that number and count on with additional objects. In particular, students have had the chance to practice this strategy during Math By Myself. After each session, I pick 1-2 students to share his/her thinking. Here is a video of Micah sharing how he counted his counting collection and how he recorded his thinking. Here are some pictures of my students' recording sheets, Rekenreks, and our discovery of ways to make 10.

WritingMy students continue to work on their personal narratives. We have been reading published personal narratives to learn common characteristics that exist in all personal narratives. Students have then incorporated these traits into their own stories. Here are some of the characteristics we have highlighted:

-these are all TRUE stories-the word 'I' is in all stories-a beginning, middle, and end make up these stories-sequence words (first, then, next, last) are often used-details are included in both words and pictures (who? what? where?)

Most of my students have begun to write whole books that include all of these characteristics. I have seen the most growth happen this week in their writing thus far! I am excited to share these books/writing pieces with you at conferences. It could be coincidence, but the sudden growth might be a result of conferring. I began to meet with each of my students individually this week. In each conference, I highlight one thing that student did extremely well and one thing that student needs to work on to make the great writing even better. Essentially, this becomes their writing goal to work on all week. This goal might last for one week, or it could last several weeks. It all depends if they are successful with that goal.

ScienceI am sure you already heard, but we began science this week. We are working on a unit that centers around forces in motion. To get students excited, Ms. Schwery's class joined us for our first experiment. Students were given a real-world problem. They learned about the Berlin wall, of all things. They learned that the Berlin Wall separated East and West Germany because of some disagreements in how people should live. When the Germans decided to live in peace, the wall needed to come down. Now comes the problem. How do they take the wall down without the wall falling on houses and apartment buildings? Students learned that it would require more than a hammer to take down the wall. It would require something much bigger and heavier to take the wall down...something like a wrecking ball.

Before you begin to worry, we did not give students real wrecking balls. They were, instead, given a paper wrecking ball to solve this problem on their own. The goal was to take down a wall of plastic cups without the cups falling down on the paper houses. It sounds like an easy task, but students soon learned how difficult it is to not wreck the houses. After many attempts, students discovered that applying less force to the wrecking ball is essential. Too much force will cause the "wall of cups" to destroy the houses.

We had so much fun with Ms. Schwery's class that we will most likely continue to do science together this year. We will try to do 1-2 experiments per week. Here are some pictures and a video from our experiment.

I would like to end this post with a few pictures and a video of our play time. I wanted to share a time when my students are truly allowed to be themselves. This is a time when students can create, play, learn, and talk. Play is all about the TALK. You will also notice in the video that a few of my students chose to work on math, reading, and writing. You will also notice the love my students have for one another. The feeling in our room is one of connection and of kindness. Enjoy!

Earlier this week, I heard one of the funniest quotes from the year, thus far. One of my students was asking about some paints that I had in the art area, and she wanted to know when students would get to use those paints. I told them that once I taught them how to use the paints and the paint smocks, they could use that paint. Long story short, another student was listening in, and he said, "That's adult paint. Now that we're in kindergarten, we get to use that paint because being in kindergarten is almost like being an adult. Right, Ms. Benson?" My response, "You are absolutely right, Cole. You are still little, but you're getting closer to being an adult every day." Yes, this conversation made me giggle, but at the same time, there really is so much power in these words. These students come to me as babies, and every day they are in school, they are learning and growing, not only in their knowledge, but in their confidence as well. Their perception of themselves changes as they continue to grow in their skills. They see themselves as readers, writers, and thinkers, and that perception helps them as they confidently attack new skills.

Needless to say, my students have grown so much since the last time I updated my blog. Here are the items we have learned in the areas of reading, writing, and math:

ReadingMy students have learned 4 of the 5 Readers' Workshop components: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. I will teach them Read to Someone next week. Word Work was an easy element to learn since it consists of working on the i-Pad. Students log in to a phonics-based program called I-Read, which is created by Scholastic. Every day, students get to visit Beastie Hall and learn various letters, words, and phonics skills from their Beastie Hall teachers. The skills they are working on are directly at their level, so each student is working on different lessons. My students have really enjoyed this program. There will be information coming home at conferences so your child can do this at home.

In addition to Word Work, my students have learned how to do Listen to Reading. This component involves, very simply, listening to reading. My students have the opportunity to listen to books on CD during this time. The purpose of Listen to Reading is to help foster fluency. The more students listen to fluent reading, the easier it will be for students to mimic that fluent reading on their own.

We have also begun Guided Reading groups this week! I wanted to begin meeting with groups much earlier in the year, but due to a lot of testing, that wasn't feasible until now. It really has been unbelievable that I have already met with all of my groups two to three times this week. At a conference this summer, I was surprised to hear that a lot of kindergarten teachers don't begin meeting with reading groups until January! I feel that the sooner I can get to groups, the better, simply because I believe this is where the most learning takes place.

Students get the most out of small group work because the lessons are designed with each group's needs in mind. I focus on a different goal with each group. Some of the goals include: 'getting your mouth ready to say the first sound' and 'finding the first part and looking through the whole word.' Each group also focuses on these three questions when they attempt to read a word they don't know: 'Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?' Ultimately, as teachers, we want students to always think back to what makes sense in the story because comprehension is the purpose for reading. Every lesson ends with a conversation centered around comprehension.

​As students receive new books in Guided Reading, they will have the opportunity to bring these books home for additional practice. These books have come home in a Dr. Seuss book bag that you should have seen at least once this week. Simply have your child read these books to you once or twice, sign the book log, and return the bag to school. My rule is that a new book cannot come home until the previous book is returned. Return the bags within one to two days of receiving it. Once a reading log is complete, students will get to pick a prize out of the prize box. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the book bags. Here are some pictures and a video of Readers' Workshop with those 4 components of Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. In the second video, you can see me working with a small group in the background at my Guided Reading table.

WritingStudents have continued to work on writing stories from their heart...stories that have happened to them. They just learned that this type of writing is called Personal Narratives. Next week, we will read lots of examples of Personal Narratives and begin to learn the different features that all Personal Narratives have. They will then incorporate those same features into their own writing.

We have learned more about stretching words out and using tools such as letter charts, spacemen (which look like astronauts, but they help them leave spaces between their words), and word walls (a wall that collects words we know how to read and write). They have also learned that a story needs a beginning, middle, and end and that we can add lots of details in pictures and words to help the reader picture everything that happened. Here are some pictures of some writing and of the writing tools we are using. Look at all of the sounds my students are getting down! It's amazing! And, yes, one of my students wrote about how I caught a toad! Notice the speech bubble that says, "Aaaa." Priceless!

One of the most important aspects of writers' workshop is our share time. Every day, one or two students are invited to share their writing with the class. My students LOVE to share. It gives writing PURPOSE. We write stories and books with the intention of people reading them. At the end of every share time, we ask the class the same two questions: 'What did this writer do well in her writing?' and 'What can this writer do to make his/her great writing even better?' Students understand that there's always something to add to make the story better ('When you thinking you're done, you've just begun.'). The students come up with a lot of great ideas for students to work on, and most of the time, my students incorporate that idea into their next piece of writing, or they add more to that particular piece. It really is so sweet how they offer compliments and suggestions to the person who shared. ​I have included a video of one of my students, Anna, sharing her writing. Enjoy!

MathIn math, we have continued to work on fluency with numbers 1-10. We have also worked on beginning addition and subtraction skills. We have specifically worked on adding one more. By working on our counting collections, students have grown in their understanding of counting in efficient ways. Students have learned how to make groups of 10 by using ten-frames. They have also learned how to record their thinking so other people know how they counted. Some students have learned how to use a hundred's chart to help them write bigger numbers. My goal is to begin meeting with math groups by the end of October.

After testing, it is very clear this is a class who has a deep understanding of numbers. As a whole, my students' scores were pretty amazing. I am excited to challenge them this year! At the end of our Math By Myself time, one to two students are asked to share their counting strategy and how they recorded their thinking. Students can truly be the best teachers! Many of my students feel empowered to try counting in different and more efficient ways because one of their friends tried it. Here are a few pictures of some counting collections and math tools. I will have to add some more pictures next week, as I forgot to take pictures and videos on Friday. Next week, I will add a video of one of my students sharing. I have, however, included a video of Math By Myself time. I tried to zoom in on a few of my students as they recorded their thinking.

Cole, you are so right. Being in kindergarten is almost like being an adult. These students have so many responsibilities every moment of the day. Their minds are being stretched and are working overtime to absorb all of the new learning. I am beyond impressed at what they have been able to accomplish so far. Please tell your children how proud I am of them and tell them to keep up the great work!

Stamina has become a common word in our classroom. Sometimes building stamina can be tough and exhausting, as proven in the above picture (CLASSIC!!!). Despite what this picture might allude to, my students have continued to build stamina in the areas of reading, writing, and math. I have been blown away by my students' ability to work for a long period of time. Here are a few updates on how we are building stamina in the areas of math, reading, and writing.

ReadingMy students have learned 2 of the 5 components of The Daily 5. Students have continued to build stamina for both Read to Self and Work on Writing. They have reached 25 to 30 minutes for both. We have also added the element of doing both reading and writing at the same time. Half of my class completed Read to Self while the other half completed Work on Writing, and then they switched roles the following round. The transition to doing multiple jobs in the same round isn't always an easy one to make, however, my students were not at all fazed by this when we tried it for the first time on Friday. This next week, we will begin to learn how to do Word Work. Here is a video from our first attempt with this.

WritingStudents have increased their stamina to 30 minutes in the area of writing. My students have done a phenomenal job of continuing to add details to their pictures and their words. They have truly taken the following saying to heart: 'When you think you're done, you've only just begun!" They are constantly thinking of ways to make their writing and their illustrations better and easier to read. They have also learned how to stretch words like rubber bands and use letter charts to get more sounds down in their writing. My students have particularly loved sharing their writing at the end of Writers' Workshop each day. As of now, 1-2 students share every day. All students will have an opportunity to share their writing before the end of the first trimester. Here are pictures and a video from our writing time.

MathMath By Myself has really taken off this week. To clarify, Math By Myself is a different time in our day separate from our regular math time. This will take place during the time in my day where I meet with small groups in math. Again, we are really gaining independence and stamina so that I can meet with math groups and so that students will have more time to practice various math skills. As of now, students have all learned how to efficiently and accurately count various counting collections. Ten-frames have been introduced as a math tool to help students accomplish this task. Students have also learned how to write their information onto a special recording sheet. In addition, our stamina has increased to 17 minutes! Here are some pictures and a video of our Math By Myself time.

On that note, I am going to end with a funny story. One little boy in my class was working on some writing at home one evening before bed. He wanted to practice drawing a picture so he knew exactly how to draw it the next day during Writers' Workshop. Apparently, he was working for a long time, trying to get his picture just right. His mom made some comment that he had probably practiced enough, and he said, "Mom, I'm increasing my stamina!" Yes, this word has made its way into normal conversation of my 5 and 6 year old students. I love this story, and I love these students with every ounce of my being!

​As I said in the blog last week, students have been busy learning routines and procedures. Now that these routines and procedures have become pretty automatic, we have been able to focus more of our attention on the curriculum. Please read the sections below to see what we've been learning in the areas of reading, writing, and math.

ReadingStudents have been hard at work learning the routines and procedures for Readers' Workshop. Once this workshop is fully up and running, students will be able to independently perform the following tasks: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing, Listen to Reading, and Word Work. Each day, students will have an opportunity to complete 4 of the 5 tasks while I work with small groups on targeted reading skills. Although it will take a few months for students to become independent with all of these tasks, it will pay off in the long run. As I've witnessed these past few years, students learn exponentially more throughout the year with the implementation of Daily 5 compared to a year without this structure. Already, my students have become independent with Read to Self and Work on Writing and are ready to learn Word Work and Listen to Reading. To help students become independent with each of these components, I have created anchor charts with my students on the specific step-by-step instructions they are to do during each task. Pictures have also been added to these charts. They serve as visual reminders on what to do for each component of the Readers' Workshop (see procedures and pictures below for Read to Self). Once a chart has been created, students directly practice each item, and slowly, but surely, they build stamina. Our first day of Read to Self, my students were able to "read" independently for 3 minutes. The second day practicing Read to Self, students were able to read independently for 5 minutes. I am proud to say that we are now able to read independently for 27 minutes! It's really amazing, considering many of my students don't exactly know how to "read" just yet.

Even though not all of my students can read words, ALL of my students can successfully read the pictures. Students have learned that there are two ways (as of now) to read a book: through pictures and through words. They will soon learn that they can also read a book by retelling the story. This beginning skill of reading pictures will help students quickly develop the skills necessary to read the words. I have also done many lessons on how to read books: how to hold a book, how to point to the words as we read, how to use the pictures to help us read the words, which direction we read words, and how to get our mouths ready to say the first sound when we come to an unknown word. We've worked on phonological awareness skills as well: rhyming, counting syllables in words, hearing and identifying beginning sounds in words, and segmenting sounds in 3-letter words.

"The Book Fairy" has also been extremely motivating in our reading adventure. She leaves books and materials in a book basket each day to help us become better readers. Oh, how my students LOVE The Book Fairy. They truly believe she is a magical creature who wants them to love reading as much as she does. My students have already received individual books from The Book Fairy to add to their reading boxes. These are the books that they know really well and can practice throughout the Readers' Workshop. Students have absolutely LOVED receiving these new books!

Here are the pictures and procedures from Read to Self:

Find Bubble Spot Get Started Right Away

​ Read the Whole Time Quiet...Shhh!!!

Also, here is a recent video of one of our sessions. Watching this again, I seriously can't get over how well this group is doing! One of the things we have really worked on is pointing to the words as we read. So many of my students were doing just that in the video below. They have taken on the role of 'reader' very seriously. I can't wait to see them really take off when we begin reading groups in the next few weeks. I have also included a video of cleaning up. We really don't have time to waste in our day, so cleaning up quickly and quietly is essential. Whenever my students hear the chimes, they know they are to stop quickly and begin to quietly clean up. They have gotten to be pretty efficient if I do say so myself!

​WritingSimilar to our Readers' Workshop, we also have a Writers' Workshop. Essentially, it's the same concept: students learn to work independently so that the teacher can work with students individually or in a small group. We started off slowly, creating an anchor chart to know exactly what to do during this time. We also took pictures to help us remember each of the procedures. We have also been building stamina. Students have gone from being able to write independently for 5 minutes to being able to write independently for 30 minutes.

I have also done many lessons on how to write. Students understand that there are three ways to write: drawing the pictures, writing the words, and adding details. Currently, they are learning that 'when they think they are done, they've really just begun'. They have learned that details can be added to both their pictures and their words to tell more of the story. They have also learned that leaving spaces between words makes writing easier to read.

All of my students feel successful at this point because they understand that even if they can't write yet, they can draw pictures to help tell the story. I am truly amazed at my students' writing and illustrating thus far. After several lessons on how to stretch out words and write down sounds, nearly all of my students have attempted to incorporate words into their writing.

We are currently writing true stories from our lives (personal narratives). Soon, we will begin reading personal narratives written by published authors to help us learn how to write this particular kind of book. Students have learned that some of the smallest moments in our lives can make the best stories. They have embraced this concept, and I am loving the memories my students are sharing. Currently, I am keeping their writing pieces in individual files. At the end of each trimester, I will put the pieces into a file for you to keep. I will also share these writing pieces with you at conferences.

Here are the pictures and procedures as well as a short video from Writers' Workshop:

​MathIn math, we have been learning several routines and procedures as well. This is the third year I am attempting to do the Math Workshop approach. Very similar to the Readers' Workshop and the Writers' Workshop I just described, Math Workshop involves students working on tasks independently while the teacher works with small groups of students. These small groups of students will consist of students who are working on similar skills. I truly believe this approach will allow me to meet the individual needs of my students. I can truly challenge them exactly where they are at. Currently, we are learning the procedures for Math By Myself. This time involves counting various collections of random objects and recording their thinking. We will also add number writing to our list of things to do during Math by Myself. Eventually, we will learn more tasks, but for now, these two activities will help deepen each students' sense of numbers. I forgot to take pictures of my students this past week, so I will be sure to add some pictures next week.

​We are also learning about different different ways to count. Students have learned that math tools can help us count efficiently. So far, we've learned about tools such as number lines and tens frames. Students have also begun to solve problems in our problem solving journals. These problems will help students understand how numbers and operations work together. We are currently learning that one method to help solve problems is through drawing pictures. We have also worked a lot on knowing groups of numbers quickly and efficiently on dice, rekenreks (a special math tool similar to an abacus), and on 5 frames. My students can quickly recognize groups of objects 1-5 on each of these objects. They have just learned the plus sign and the equals sign and have just begun to understand what these symbols mean and how to add.

Aren't my students amazing? I am thoroughly impressed each and every day at all they have learned in just 12 days. If this is any indication of what they are going to accomplish, I think it's safe to say they will find a lot of success this year. I look forward to having a front row seat to these successes. I will be sure to add a video later this week of our math by myself time.

I would like to end this post by sharing a funny story. Darrian, one of my students, earned a Titan Ticket. After receiving it, he said, "This is my third Titan Ticket of the day!" I gave him praise and said, "Good job!" He then proceeded to say, "Man, I'm really starting to figure this school thing out!" Well, that makes one of us! I am STILL trying to figure this "school thing" out as every day of teaching brings new surprises and challenges. Even though I still laugh about that story, it reminds me that these kids really do have so much to learn when they enter kindergarten. It's probably very overwhelming, but my students have handled it with such grace and excitement. It's been a pleasure to witness their accomplishments thus far!

One of our accomplishments has been earning so many Titan Tickets and Trophies as a class that we have earned several prizes already. We earned a short movie/popcorn party on Friday. Here is a short video of our celebration. My students were so excited to watch Arthur and eat popcorn and M&Ms. It was the perfect way to end a busy week.